The stock market has been somewhat weak since my second “Bear Food” article Dec. 24, down 6.3 percent to 1,075 on the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index, and has showed recent signs of deteriorating further.

The spate of anti-free market activity by the Bush administration since the beginning of March may have had limited immediate economic effect, but it will have a huge effect on Bush’s historical reputation. If there’s a deep recession going forward, it’s now clearly on his watch.

Of all the dangers and costs facing the Western economies in the 21st century — terrorism, global warming, overpopulation, social security bankruptcy — the most expensive over the course of the century is likely to be the spiraling cost of healthcare — not just a money pit, but a money chasm.

Free marketers voting for George W. Bush in 2000 did not, of course, imagine they would get Calvin Coolidge, or even Ronald Reagan, but they expected a president who would lean generally in the free market direction, and would obstruct congressional and Federal Reserve Board attempts to expand government spending, subsidize special interests, or prolong […]

The passage last week by the U.S. House of Representatives of a $180 billion farm subsidy program, the March 5 decision by the Bush administration to impose tariffs on steel, and the continuing discoveries by Congress of new needs for government programs raises an interesting question: Is there any political organization that a committed free […]